Northeast Pa. counties plan to maintain status quo on gay marriage

Saturday

Jul 27, 2013 at 12:01 AM

While the register of wills in Montgomery County attracts national news by issuing same-sex marriage licenses in defiance of the state's ban, county officials in northeastern Pennsylvania said they have no plans to follow him down the aisle.

PETER CAMERON

While the register of wills in Montgomery County attracts national news by issuing same-sex marriage licenses in defiance of the state's ban, county officials in northeastern Pennsylvania said they have no plans to follow him down the aisle.

"Whatever our personal feelings are on the matter, we have to follow Pennsylvania law," Luzerne County Solicitor David Pedri said.

D. Bruce Hanes, the register of wills in Montgomery County and a Democrat who started serving in the elected position in 2008, granted the first marriage license to a gay couple Wednesday.

His action comes just weeks after a big win streak for the gay rights movement in Pennsylvania, including a U.S. Supreme Court decision that struck down a federal ban on gay marriage, which opened the door to the American Civil Liberties Union filing suit against Pennsylvania's gay marriage ban, which in turn led to the state's Attorney General Kathleen Kane announcing she would not defend the ban, saying she believed it to be unconstitutional.

"Based upon the advice of (my solicitor), my own analysis of the law and mindful of the attorney general's belief, I decided to come down on the right side of history and the law," Hanes said Tuesday.

The maneuver is "an odd way of forcing the court's hand," said Kyle Kreider, an associate professor of political science at Wilkes University. Normally a government official opposed to a law that applies to them would deny the request and then tell the refused party to sue them.

But Kreider said Hanes' maneuver likely will speed up the court to make a decision and clear up the confusion he has caused.

"You know, I know, everyone knows that the legal process is slow, meandering, deliberate, so it's going to put in legal limbo the marriage of the many same-sex couples that go to Montgomery County," Kreider said.

In a direct response to Hanes, the register of wills in Schuylkill County, Theresa Santai-Gaffney, released a written statement Wednesday saying she would not begin to offer same-sex marriage licenses.

"I wanted to reassure the people of Schuylkill County that the rule of law, not partisan politics, will guide my actions on this issue," she said in the release.

James Davis, the Wyoming County solicitor, called the challenge in Montgomery County an "interesting development," but not one likely to happen in his area.

"I don't think the law of Pennsylvania permits that at the moment, so it's a philosophical question and I have no opinion," Davis said. "As of right now, I don't know how (Montgomery County) can do it."

Donald Frederickson Jr., the solicitor of Lackawanna County, while pointing out that he represented the county commissioners and not the register of wills, who has her own solicitor, concurred with the opinions of his fellow solicitors.

"There is a state law and I would recommend to the commissioners that they follow the law," he said. "As long as the law is on the books, I believe we have to follow that law."

Of course, with the political and legal tides moving the way they are, the law could come off the books in the near future.